As Ankara Continues to Fan Flames of War, Syria’s Leader Blasts Erdogan
“For the first time, Turkey is openly supporting Azerbaijan. The flaring up armed confrontation in Karabakh, like a magnet, attracts militants from various international terrorist structures,” Russia’s intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said in a statement Tuesday, acknowledging the presence of foreign terrorists in the current Karabakh war.
The head of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, known as SVR, said he has information that mercenaries from international terror groups, such as the Nusra Front, the Firqat al-Hamza, the Sultan Murad Division, fighting in the Middle East, have actively converged on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
“Moreover, we are talking about hundreds or even thousands of extremists who seek to profit from the new Karabakh war. We have no doubt that the conflicting parties will eventually stop the use of force and will sit around the negotiation table with the support of the international community,” said Naryshjin,
Naryshlin’s statement add further weight to statements last week from the Kremlin, France’s President Emanuel Macron and a Pentagon official, who all acknowledged the presence of Turkish-backed mercenaries fighting for Baku.
Russia’s intelligence chief expressed concern over the military escalation and said the “new war” in the region is unacceptable to Russia, an OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing country.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited on Wednesday visited Baku where he once again voiced his country’s unequivocal support for Azerbaijan as that country continues its attacks on civilian and military targets in Artsakh.
Cavusoglu’s visit to Baku fans the flames of this deadly aggression.
Ankara’s top diplomat criticized the OSCE Minsk Group for what he described as not having a clear plan for settling the conflict, ignoring the Co-Chairmanship’s recent efforts to prevent bloodshed and calls for non-intervention of third parties.
Syrian President Bashar Assad joined the chorus of world leaders to criticize Ankara’s intervention calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “the main instigator and initiator” of the renewed tensions in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Sputnik reported.
“Let’s be blunt and clear; Erdogan has supported terrorists in Syria, and he’s been supporting terrorists in Libya, and he was the main instigator and initiator of the recent conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. So, I would sum up his behavior as dangerous, for different reasons,” Assad told the Kremlin-backed news agency.
Assad said that Damascus can confirm that Turkey is sending jihadists from Syria to fight against Karabakh.
He said that Erdogan was “creating war in different regions to distract his own public opinion in Turkey from focusing on his behavior inside Turkey, especially after his scandalous relations with Daesh [ISIS] in Syria,” Assad added.
